


i think i’ve seen this film before

by InkBlotAngel



Series: time’s wingèd chariot hurrying near [7]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Marvel
Genre: Acknowledgement is Very Important, Character Death, Empath!May, GIVE US MAYDAISY YOU COWARDS, Gen, MayDaisy Rights, Melinda May Feels, Melinda May is Skye | Daisy Johnson's Mother, Melinda May's New Powers, Not Really Character Death, Skye | Daisy Johnson Needs a Hug, Time Loop, because, seriously
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-27
Updated: 2020-07-27
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:41:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,120
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25556785
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InkBlotAngel/pseuds/InkBlotAngel
Summary: This can’t be the way she’ll lose May—she’s lost her back in that Temple, the memory of May looking at her one last time still fresh in her mind. They had the chance to exchange final words, to say goodbye, and May wasn’t alone,May wasn’t alone.Not like this, not with her unseeing eyes, not the life coming out of her in an instant, not in the cockpit by herself and away from the people who love her.May was so still.Set during 7.09: May dies in one of the time loops
Relationships: Melinda May & Skye | Daisy Johnson
Series: time’s wingèd chariot hurrying near [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1790437
Comments: 35
Kudos: 109





	i think i’ve seen this film before

**Author's Note:**

> This is me acknowledging some things that could have been explored in the show further, namely MAYDAISY RIGHTS! Also, I was a bit sad 7.09 didn't feature a dedicated May death scene, although that would have opened a whole can of worms hence this fic.
> 
> Title from exile by Taylor Swift feat. Bon Iver, because who isn’t listening to folklore these days?

She sees the light in her sleep, the blinding brightness playing a tug of war with the darkness of healing slumber. Her body didn’t want to wake up, wounds still throbbing rather painfully and she was sore in places she never thought could hurt, but she was slowly gaining consciousness.

Daisy lies still for a little longer, assessing her surroundings and whether she was in any immediate danger, but her hands and legs are free of any restraints, and there is only a machine’s telltale hum—a familiar sound—filling her ears.

She’s in the healing chamber, she realizes, finally opening her eyes. Her gaze remains unfocused for a second as recent happenings come back to her.

There’s a hollow tightness in her chest as she recalls being vivisected by Nathaniel, the emotional pain more intense than any injuries she sustained. It’s a sensation that she’s already acquainted with, rather well in fact, the trauma of Fitz removing her power inhibitor against her will stinging like a fresh wound despite all appearances she puts up in front of Jemma.

Daisy exhales, her warm breath fogging up the glass momentarily—a reminder that she was alive—before letting herself out, tumbling gracelessly with her boots making a heavy sound on the floor.

Just like the past year or so, there’s no time to dwell on things. Today is not an exception.

* * *

She barely makes it into Command, Sousa hobbling behind her, when the Zephyr’s warning sounds cut through the air. May and Mack immediately dash towards the control systems nearest them, moving in synchronized ease that belied their alarm at the situation.

“I’ve got damage to nearly all systems,” confirms Mack after quickly going through the aircraft’s status report.

A few steps away from him, May was studying the navigation, her gaze flying across the screen. “Trying to get a read on our location,” she states.

“What’s happening?” asks Sousa.

“Time drive overloaded,” was May’s quick answer, striding past him to on her way to the cockpit.

To his credit, Sousa barely looks fazed. “Any chance that’s a 21st-century slang for 'worked normally'?"

“Where are we?” Mack mutters.

Daisy moves to follow May into the cockpit, but the vast expanse beyond the glass stops her in her tracks just before the frosted doors. “Guys,” she manages, her heart pounding in fearful apprehension. “Anyone want to fill me in on… _that_?”

The view was strange yet mesmerizing, like the colors of the rainbow marrying clouds of the most violent storms, with them in the middle of it all. It was beautiful, although Daisy could barely appreciate it, her thoughts focused on the fact it was clearly not of this earth.

It was almost like a tunnel, with dazzling light at the end of it and nothingness beyond the horizon. Her stomach twists in dread, not really wanting to know what was going to happen if they reach that point.

Before she could say anything else, a bright flare suddenly blinds everyone in the room, and something hits the front of the Zephyr, jolting the entire aircraft and sending sparks all over Command as the systems fritz further. The alarms blare on, loud and shrill before everything fades back into view.

Then, Daisy screams.

* * *

She feels the other woman fall before she sees it, and in a heartbeat after ending Sarge once and for all, Daisy is on the floor next to May’s writhing body. Tears sting her eyes as she whispers May’s name over and over, gently cradling her head in her lap.

Her face, once a lovely ivory, was of a haunting pallor that contrasted with the deathly shadows underneath her eyes. Crimson ran down one side of her pale lips, dried against clammy skin that shone every time she flinched in pain.

“Was there anything left of him?” May’s breathing is ragged like it was borrowed and she needed to give it back. “Coulson?”

Her heartbroken expression after Daisy shakes her head is crushing, and for a moment Daisy herself struggles to breathe. She wills herself to hang on, to be strong, to be here for May just as May has been there for her all these years. She’s seen the wounds and the fresh pool of blood. She already knows how this will end.

“I guess…” May murmurs faintly, looking at Daisy as if committing her to memory before giving her a small yet reassuring smile, feeling herself slipping. “I’ll see him soon enough.”

Her eyes close for the final time, and Daisy’s resolve finally cracks, letting out a sob as the searing pain of loss ravages her.

_She’s gone, she’s gone, she’s—_

* * *

_—gone._

_Please, no. No, no, not again._

She rushes into the cockpit and kneels beside the pilot’s chair where May’s lifeless body was hunched over the controls. She props her up on the seat and her stomach churns at the sight. May’s face is frozen in an expression of fear, shock, and pain, her eyes wide yet empty. The radiation flare had hit her straight on the chest, melting her favorite navy-blue leather jacket and the shirt she wore underneath to reveal… _oh god_ , Daisy recoils in horror.

May had been close to the window, with only a pane of glass to protect her from the flare.

Daisy’s screams are devastating.

She’s dimly aware of Sousa and Mack approaching her from behind, but she could barely understand the words pouring out from her as she cradles May’s face tenderly once more, this time in her hands.

“ _Get Simmons!_ ” she yells to no one in particular, all her focus entirely on her mentor. “Prepare the healing chamber, look for that serum, we need help here— _May!_ ”

She gently taps May’s cheek as if trying to wake her. “May, hang in there _please_ , we’ll bring you back, we always will—Jemma, she’s got that incredible pod, we’ll put you there.”

(Somehow, she knows this was beyond anything the chamber can do.)

May was so still.

This can’t be the way she’ll lose May—she’s lost her back in that Temple, the memory of May looking at her one last time still fresh in her mind. They had the chance to exchange final words, to say goodbye, and May wasn’t alone, _May wasn’t alone._

Not like this, not with her unseeing eyes, not the life coming out of her in an instant, not in the cockpit by herself and away from the people who love her.

May was so still.

The Temple wasn’t even that long ago, although Daisy had barely processed May dying in her arms when Simmons came to their rescue. Since then, everything has been pushed to the aside, buried deep in the ocean, but now she was swimming to the surface.

Today might be the exception after all.

Daisy struggles to breathe, a harrowing emptiness threatening to pull her under again. She had only just begun to properly mourn Coulson before dealing with his doppelganger, and having his LMD around has likely set her healing back more than she’d care to admit. Coulson, always coming back, like a cat with nine lives and refusing to die. She was holding on to that.

But May—never in her wildest dreams did she ever think of her life without Melinda May in it. She was a constant presence, always just behind the limelight and allowing someone else to shine while she moved through the shadows, slaying threats in the darkness. She was always just _there_. Daisy remembers how May protected her from Lady Sif and Vin-Tak without question, fearlessly locking herself up with then-Skye in Vault D with only an ICER, even when they both didn’t understand her new powers.

 _And I wasn’t there for her when she didn’t understand her new abilities_ , the realization hits her like a speeding car, nearly making her double over with guilt and regret, and the tears are falling freely now.

May was so still.

Daisy takes May’s hands—deathly cold, she dimly registers—into her own, and wills May’s empath powers to work the other way around, hoping that somehow and somewhere May could feel the love she’s never really vocalized to her until it was too late. “May, I’m… I’m so sorry, m—mom.” The word comes out like she was testing it, unfamiliar and uncertain.

She’s never called anyone that before, never really having a real one to begin with. Not one of the foster moms she went through in childhood didn’t deserve it, and she was only beginning to see Jiaying as mom such before her biological mother declared war on S.H.I.E.L.D. Sucking the life force out of her didn’t help Jiaying’s case either, and so Daisy held the title close to her heart for safekeeping so no one can take it away from her.

Until now.

When they first met, then-Skye had no idea how much May would mean to her. Back then, May was so closed off, haunted by her trauma and only reluctantly back on the field for a friend. She had been set on following mission parameters, and Skye being the unknown variable she couldn’t trust, she kept her walls up high.

And yet things changed along the way, gradual and all at once:

She could still remember the way her heart soared when she found out May beat up Ian Quinn for shooting her. The thought that someone would even _do_ that for her was surprisingly touching—she’s never had anyone like that protecting her before; she’s always had to fend for herself.

May taking her under her wing as her S.O., all those long hours of combat and weapon training and the seemingly longer hour every morning for tai chi.

May teaching her that it’s perfectly okay to be different, to take up space, to make mistakes, to speak her mind, to feel, and to nurture those emotions so they work to her advantage.

May was her mom in all the ways that mattered. And she was giving May this gift, this word of just three letters, simple yet means the world to her.

Except it was too late.

May was so still.

Somewhere in the Zephyr, the time drive hums back to life,

* * *

She sees the light in her sleep, the blinding brightness playing a tug of war with the darkness of healing slumber. Her body didn’t want to wake up, wounds still throbbing rather painfully and she was sore in places she never thought could hurt, but she was slowly gaining consciousness.

Daisy lies still for a little longer, assessing her surroundings and whether she was in any immediate danger, but her hands and legs are free of any restraints, and there is only a machine’s telltale hum—a familiar sound—filling her ears.

She’s in the healing chamber _again_ , she realizes with confusion, finally opening her eyes. Her gaze remains unfocused for a second as recent happenings come back to her.

Daisy exhales, her warm breath fogging up the glass momentarily—a reminder that she was alive—before letting herself out, tumbling gracelessly with her boots making a heavy sound on the floor.

She barely makes it into Command, Sousa hobbling behind her, when the Zephyr’s warning sounds cut through the air. May— _May’s here_ —and Mack immediately dash towards the control systems nearest them, moving in synchronized ease that belied their alarm at the situation.

“I’ve got damage to nearly all systems,” confirms Mack after quickly going through the aircraft’s status report.

A few steps away from him, May was studying the navigation, her gaze flying across the screen. “Trying to get a read on—“ her words cut off as Daisy sweeps her in a tight embrace, and she’s suddenly overcome with the full spectrum of Daisy’s emotions.

“Groundhog Day, radiation flare, keep the cockpit door closed,” she hears Daisy tell Sousa and Mack, but she could barely register their confused faces or hear their questions. Instead, she's engulfed with the force of Daisy's grief, so raw and painful that tears formed in her own eyes. Then, an overwhelming wave of relief, stemming from a heartbreaking gratitude for what feels like a second chance—perhaps the girl was telling the truth about the time loop, after all.

There were other bits and pieces there: fear, confusion, guilt, and wonder were just a few she could detect, but everything was tied together by one other feeling, something that was encompassed everything so well that she finally truly understood why people believe it was powerful.

_Love._

And with every time loop she can remember, Daisy holds on to May long enough to keep her safe and make her feel loved.

**END.**


End file.
